Ordeal by Fire: The Transformative Rhetoric of Abraham Lincoln

During his presidency, the major rhetorical challenge facing Lincoln was to interpret the conflict between the North and South and the ensuing Civil War to assure support for the Union cause, to sustain commitment to the war, and to justify the sacrifices entailed. This rhetorical process of defining the Union and its cause occurred over time. Thus, three pieces of discourse were crucial to this interpretative process: the First and Second Inaugural Addresses and the Gettysburg Address. This essay reveals how each piece of discourse played a distinctive role in the interpretative process and suggests that all three are crucial for Lincoln to master his major rhetorical challenge. Furthermore, the essay argues that across the three pieces of discourse Lincoln shifts from a justification based in the Constitution to one based on the principles contained in the Declaration of Independence. Finally, this essay provides a complement to research which has examined how nations construct their enemies by suggesting that how they depict their own roles is equally important.